Anyone familiar with Network Stumbler will definitely appreciate running Kismet Server or Kismet Drone on their WRT54G, since this router has some of the best radios around, along with nice sturdy RP-TNC connectors to hook up even better antennas to without worry about damaging your wireless card or radio pigtails (I've gone through a number of PCI cards with RP-SMA connectors that keep breaking appart).

-

'''This Wiki assumes you already have a current build of DD-WRT installed on your router.'''

Kismet is an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software OSS project] for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux Linux]. Find out more information about it at the [http://www.kismetwireless.net Official Kismet Wireless] site.

Kismet is an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software OSS project] for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux Linux]. Find out more information about it at the [http://www.kismetwireless.net Official Kismet Wireless] site.

-

Since Kismet is a Linux project, it can run as either the full server, or just a drone server on the WRT54G router. You are then free to run a Kismet client on your desktop computer view the output.

+

Since Kismet is a Linux project, it can run as either the full server, or just a drone server on the WRT54G router. You are then free to run a Kismet client on your desktop computer view the output.

+

+

Anyone familiar with Network Stumbler will definitely appreciate running Kismet Server or Kismet Drone on their WRT54G, since this router has some of the best radios around, along with nice sturdy RP-TNC connectors to hook up even better antennas without worrying about damaging your wireless card or radio pigtails (I've gone through a number of PCI cards with RP-SMA connectors that keep breaking apart).

=Server or Drone=

=Server or Drone=

==Drone==

==Drone==

-

The Kismet project has developed the capability of running Drones: devices with wireless cards that mearly send their data back to a Kismet server. If you run the Kismet Drone on your DD-WRT box, you'll need to run the client and the server elsewhere. Both can be on your desktop computer, or you could have a machine somewhere else running just the server. Running a Kismet drone on your WRT and the Client/Server on a desktop computer(s) seems to be the most common installation. <br>

+

The Kismet project has developed the capability of running Drones: devices with wireless cards that merely send their data back to a Kismet server. If you run the Kismet Drone on your DD-WRT box, you'll need to run the client and the server elsewhere. Both can be on your desktop computer, or you could have a machine somewhere else running just the server. Running a Kismet drone on your WRT and the Client/Server on a desktop computer(s) seems to be the most common installation for windows users<br>

-

While drones require a little more work to install, they provide 3 benifits over running full servers on the WRT.<br>

+

While drones require a little more work to install, they provide 3 benefits over running full servers on the WRT:

-

1) It is easier to save captured packets to user later, such as for WEP decryption.<br>

+

-

2) Drone installations are smaller, requiring less space on the WRT<br>

+

# It is easier to save captured packets to use later, such as for WEP decryption.<br>

-

3) Drone installations probably require less processing power allowing you to run more additional programs on your WRT.<br>

+

# Drone installations are smaller, requiring less space on the WRT<br>

+

# Drone installations probably require less processing power allowing you to run more additional programs on your WRT.<br>

[[#Drone_2|Install Drone on WRT54G/S]]

[[#Drone_2|Install Drone on WRT54G/S]]

==Server==

==Server==

-

Since the kismet server is capable of running on top of DD-WRT one is able to simplify the installation by only running a client on their desktop machine. I'm not exactly sure what the advantages are, except that this seemed to be easier to install.<br>

+

Since the kismet server is capable of running on top of DD-WRT one is able to simplify the installation by only running a client on their desktop machine. I'm not exactly sure what the advantages are, except that this seemed to be easier to install. Since the actual server is running on the DD-WRT, any packets captured will be saved on the WRT, meaning you will have to copy them to your desktop if you plan to interpret them (such as for WEP decryption). This is why running the drone only on the WRT, and running the server+client on the desktop is a better idea as captured packets would be saved to the hard drive desktop machine rather than using the limited RAM on the WRT.<br>

-

[[#Server_2|Install on Server WRT54G/S]]

+

One of the advantages of a server on your desktop machine is that multiple drones connected to the server will only generate one log file.

+

[[#Server_2|Install Server on WRT54G/S]]

=Installing & Configuring on the WRT54G=

=Installing & Configuring on the WRT54G=

==Drone==

==Drone==

+

IMPORTANT NOTE:

IMPORTANT NOTE:

-

There seems to be a minor problem with the drone: although channel hopping is enabled it gets disabled automatically by the drone - this means that it doesn`t find anything.

+

This installation guide describes how to set up BOTH the server and the drone on the WRT. If you want to capture packets the server needs to run on your Linux box (windows might also work but you would need to compile the server within cygwin - I don`t think this works: the last links to another how-to on this site says it won`t compile with the pcap option within cygwin).<br>

-

My installation guide describes how to set up BOTH the server and the drone on the WRT - which doesn`t make much sense: if you want to capture packages the server needs to run on your linux box (windows might also work but you would need to compile the server within cygwin).

+

+

'''Question:''' What is the point of installing the drone on the WRT? if you're going to put the server there too? Why not just do the server on the WRT? I thought the whole point in putting the drone on the WRT is so you can put the server on your desktop machine ''instead'' of on the WRT?? <br>

+

+

'''Answer:''' This is exactly the problem - at the moment it is REALLY pretty much useless. <br>

+

Normally you would install only the server on the WRT to get a fast result (as you said above). The disadvantage is that you can`t capture packets easily - you may do it with the SD Card-Mod, by mounting an SMB or NFS share or by simply copying the files from the WRT but this quite complicated (especially for larger dumps).

+

Having the drone on the WRT would mean that you could run the server on your desktop to log the packets - as I have only got windows I can`t run the server on my box (I didn`t see that I couldn`t log packets this way - it was a little late when I did this...). As a defense I have to say that the other that is linked on this page also uses the drone and the server on the WRT.

+

If you have Linux this how-to might be useful on how to set up an drone - on linux you can dump packets.<br>

+

I have also found out that because of some weird problem the server alone supports channel hopping - the drone from rops site doesn`t do this (it says that the source (prism0) isn`t able to do it - but the server does it ???). Simply try it - it might work for you.

+

+

'''Work Around for server on windows issues.'''<br>

+

With the high availability of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization Virtualization] software, it is rather simple to install a virtual machine onto a windows box. [http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ VMWare] and [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx Microsoft] both offer free virtualization software for windows. Microsoft also offers a [http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/default.aspx server version] of their Virtualization software, and VMWare sells an [http://www.vmware.com/products/vi/ "enterprise"] edition of their software which has many additional features. [http://www.virtualbox.org/ Virtual Box] is an open source virtualization server. I have no experience with it, though it's USB support features warrant a look.<br> After you install your chosen Virtual PC, follow the programs instructions to create a virtual machine. You will also need to assign it hard drive space. It can either use a drive you specify, or you can create a Virtual Hard Drive [VHD] which is simply a file stored on your hard drive that holds the file system and files on your virtual pc. Once you have a VM created, you can pick a linux distribution, follow standard install procedures, and install the kismet server software on your linux VM. From here, you have the choice of installing the windows client on your pc, or the linux client inside the linux VM.<br>

I have no idea how to install only the server on the WRT '''(Installing the server only is given in the [[#Server_2]] section of this wiki article)''', but you may run server and drone both on the WRT. I hope that someone finds an easier way - mine has worked for me, but it did cost me hours to get everything working (it won`t cost you this time when you follow my guide - at least I hope so). I will try to make an package for DD-WRT but I can`t promise this, as I`m not an linux guru.

-

The problem by now is that you can`t install the package from rops site - it has been made for Open WRT and tries to write to part of the flash that are read-only in DD-WRT.

-

This is also one of my problems: the startup scripts aere located in an part of the flash that is also read-only

-

<br>

===Assumptions===

===Assumptions===

-

--Your router has SSH configured and you can send files via SSH to and from your desktop

+

-

--You have a text editor capable of Unix line delimiters. [http://www.textpad.com TextPad] and [http://www.gena01.com/win32pad/win32pad_1_5_7.exe win32pad] are both acceptable (and free).<br> '''Failure to use one of these when editing text files will prevent your installation from working'''

+

* Your router has SSH configured and you can send files via SSH to and from your desktop

-

--You have telnet enabled on your router.

+

* You have a text editor capable of Unix line delimiters. [http://www.textpad.com TextPad] and [http://www.gena01.com/win32pad/win32pad_1_5_7.exe win32pad] are both acceptable (and free).<br> '''Failure to use one of these when editing text files will prevent your installation from working'''

-

--You have jffs enabled or do mind redoing this whenever the router reboots

+

* You have telnet or SSH enabled on your router.

-

--I will assume you are installing to the jffs partition. If you are not, replace jffs with tmp or some other folder

+

* You have jffs enabled or do mind redoing this whenever the router reboots

+

* I will assume you are installing to the jffs partition. If you are not, replace jffs with tmp or some other folder

+

===Preparation===

===Preparation===

-

--Dowload these two files to your computer:

+

WARNING: These packages are rather old (and doesn't work at least for WRT-54GL v1.1) use the ones linked from the article [[Wrt54g_kismet_with_linux_server]]

-- Open the properties for the files (press "F9") and check the "x" in the line "owner"

+

+

You may also do this by using [[WinSCP]]:

+

+

* Open the properties for the files (press "F9") and check the "x" in the line "owner"

+

===Run Kismet===

===Run Kismet===

-

&nbsp;&nbsp;A) You can launch the server on startup (let me know if you know how to do this).<br>

-

&nbsp;&nbsp;B) You can telnet into the router and launch it manually.<br>

-

&nbsp;&nbsp;C) You can launch the server manually from the web interface<br>

-

'''Method A: You can launch the server on startup'''

+

There are three ways run Kismet:

-

In principle you would simply need to install the startup scripts out of the data directory that came within the *.ipks <br> - I don`t know how to do this. I guess you would also have to edit them - they are using different paths than we used <br> for the installation of the binaries and configuration files.

+

+

* Launch automatically at server startup (let me know if you know how to do this).

+

* Launch manually by Telnet or SSH

+

* Launch manually by [[Web Interface]]

+

+

====Automatically====

+

+

In principle you would simply need to install the [[Startup Scripts]] out of the data directory that came within the *.ipks <br> - I don't know how to do this. I guess you would also have to edit them - they are using different paths than we used <br> for the installation of the binaries and configuration files.

(If you are just running the drone on the wrt, you will have to use a short script to manually channel hop. (This may also be needed even if you run the server on the wrt) see [[channel hopping on kismet drone]] for more details.)

+

+

see also installing [[wrt54g kismet with linux server]]

==Server==

==Server==

+

===Assumptions===

===Assumptions===

-

--Your router has SSH configured and you can send files via SSH to and from your desktop

-

--You have a text editor capable of Unix line delimiters. [http://www.textpad.com TextPad] and [http://www.gena01.com/win32pad/win32pad_1_5_7.exe win32pad] are both acceptable (and free).<br> '''Failure to use one of these when editing text files will prevent your installation from working'''

-

--You have telnet enabled on your router.

-

--You have jffs enabled or do mind redoing this whenever the router reboots

-

--I will assume you are installing to the jffs partition. If you are not, replace jffs with tmp or some other folder

-

===Preperation===

+

* Your router has SSH configured and you can send files via SSH to and from your desktop

-

The guy at Musatcha.com has put together a [http://www5.musatcha.com/musatcha/computers/wap54g_kismet.zip great binary] to make installation simplier. Download it.

+

* You have a text editor capable of Unix line delimiters. [http://www.textpad.com TextPad] and [http://www.gena01.com/win32pad/win32pad_1_5_7.exe win32pad] are both acceptable (and free).<br> '''Failure to use one of these when editing text files will prevent your installation from working'''

-

--Extract the two files to somewhere on your computer.

+

* You have telnet enabled on your router.

-

--Edit the kismet.conf file

+

* You have jffs enabled or do mind redoing this whenever the router reboots

-

-- Find the line "source=wrt54g..."

+

* I will assume you are installing to the jffs partition. If you are not, replace jffs with tmp or some other folder

# Run kismet_client.exe WHILE your server is running on the router. You may have to launch a cygwin command prompt first. Cygwin behaves kinda weird sometimes.

+

# The client is entirely keyboard driven. Press the 'h' key for help. You'll probably want to turn off auto sort right<br> away so you can view extended information about individual networks. Press the 's' key to do this.

+

+

=2nd Way - Drone only=

+

+

If you own a WRT54GS (with 32 megs of RAM), you have an easier way.

+

+

# Open a [[Telnet/SSH_and_the_Command_Line|Telnet/SSH prompt]] and enter the following commands:

+

+

ipkg update

+

cd /tmp

+

wget http://www.kismetwireless.net/code/kismet-2006-04-R1-wrt54.tar.gz # your can use latest version at http://www.kismetwireless.net/download.shtml

+

tar -zxvf kismet-2006-04-R1-wrt54.tar.gz # update if you get another version

+

cd kismet-2006-04-R1-wrt54 # again, update if you get another version

+

vi conf/kismet_drone.conf

+

+

If you don't know vi, search on google to use it. Set your needed values like:

+

+

* ''allowedhosts=127.0.0.1,192.168.0.0/24''

+

* ''source=wrt54g,prism0,wrt54g'' (Watch out to change the uncommented ''source'' line, not the commented one!)

+

+

Now it's time to have fun, enter the following commands into the Telnet/SSH prompt:

+

+

wl ap 0

+

wl disassoc

+

wl passive 1

+

wl promisc 1

+

./kismet_drone -f conf/kismet_drone.conf

+

+

Once you're done, you can save this permanently to your [[Jffs]] or [[Samba]] server by doing the following:

+

+

cp kismet_drone /jffs/

+

cp conf/kismet_drone.conf /jffs/

+

+

And run kismet_drone this way:

+

+

cd /jffs/

+

wl ap 0

+

wl disassoc

+

wl passive 1

+

wl promisc 1

+

./kismet_drone -f kismet_drone.conf

-

'''Method B: Compile Kismet to run on Cygwin'''

+

To run the server and the client, you're better to use a VMWare image with a live Linux CD if you are a Windows user and you don't want to install linux on your computer. See also [[Kismet on Linux]].

Since Kismet is a Linux project, it can run as either the full server, or just a drone server on the WRT54G router. You are then free to run a Kismet client on your desktop computer view the output.

Anyone familiar with Network Stumbler will definitely appreciate running Kismet Server or Kismet Drone on their WRT54G, since this router has some of the best radios around, along with nice sturdy RP-TNC connectors to hook up even better antennas without worrying about damaging your wireless card or radio pigtails (I've gone through a number of PCI cards with RP-SMA connectors that keep breaking apart).

The Kismet project has developed the capability of running Drones: devices with wireless cards that merely send their data back to a Kismet server. If you run the Kismet Drone on your DD-WRT box, you'll need to run the client and the server elsewhere. Both can be on your desktop computer, or you could have a machine somewhere else running just the server. Running a Kismet drone on your WRT and the Client/Server on a desktop computer(s) seems to be the most common installation for windows users

While drones require a little more work to install, they provide 3 benefits over running full servers on the WRT:

It is easier to save captured packets to use later, such as for WEP decryption.

Drone installations are smaller, requiring less space on the WRT

Drone installations probably require less processing power allowing you to run more additional programs on your WRT.

Since the kismet server is capable of running on top of DD-WRT one is able to simplify the installation by only running a client on their desktop machine. I'm not exactly sure what the advantages are, except that this seemed to be easier to install. Since the actual server is running on the DD-WRT, any packets captured will be saved on the WRT, meaning you will have to copy them to your desktop if you plan to interpret them (such as for WEP decryption). This is why running the drone only on the WRT, and running the server+client on the desktop is a better idea as captured packets would be saved to the hard drive desktop machine rather than using the limited RAM on the WRT.
One of the advantages of a server on your desktop machine is that multiple drones connected to the server will only generate one log file.
Install Server on WRT54G/S

IMPORTANT NOTE:
This installation guide describes how to set up BOTH the server and the drone on the WRT. If you want to capture packets the server needs to run on your Linux box (windows might also work but you would need to compile the server within cygwin - I don`t think this works: the last links to another how-to on this site says it won`t compile with the pcap option within cygwin).

Question: What is the point of installing the drone on the WRT? if you're going to put the server there too? Why not just do the server on the WRT? I thought the whole point in putting the drone on the WRT is so you can put the server on your desktop machine instead of on the WRT??

Answer: This is exactly the problem - at the moment it is REALLY pretty much useless.
Normally you would install only the server on the WRT to get a fast result (as you said above). The disadvantage is that you can`t capture packets easily - you may do it with the SD Card-Mod, by mounting an SMB or NFS share or by simply copying the files from the WRT but this quite complicated (especially for larger dumps).
Having the drone on the WRT would mean that you could run the server on your desktop to log the packets - as I have only got windows I can`t run the server on my box (I didn`t see that I couldn`t log packets this way - it was a little late when I did this...). As a defense I have to say that the other that is linked on this page also uses the drone and the server on the WRT.
If you have Linux this how-to might be useful on how to set up an drone - on linux you can dump packets.
I have also found out that because of some weird problem the server alone supports channel hopping - the drone from rops site doesn`t do this (it says that the source (prism0) isn`t able to do it - but the server does it ???). Simply try it - it might work for you.

Work Around for server on windows issues.
With the high availability of Virtualization software, it is rather simple to install a virtual machine onto a windows box. VMWare and Microsoft both offer free virtualization software for windows. Microsoft also offers a server version of their Virtualization software, and VMWare sells an "enterprise" edition of their software which has many additional features. Virtual Box is an open source virtualization server. I have no experience with it, though it's USB support features warrant a look. After you install your chosen Virtual PC, follow the programs instructions to create a virtual machine. You will also need to assign it hard drive space. It can either use a drive you specify, or you can create a Virtual Hard Drive [VHD] which is simply a file stored on your hard drive that holds the file system and files on your virtual pc. Once you have a VM created, you can pick a linux distribution, follow standard install procedures, and install the kismet server software on your linux VM. From here, you have the choice of installing the windows client on your pc, or the linux client inside the linux VM.VMware Server WikiVirtual PC WikiVirtual Box's WikiA Handy comparison chart of available VM software

Your router has SSH configured and you can send files via SSH to and from your desktop

You have a text editor capable of Unix line delimiters. TextPad and win32pad are both acceptable (and free).Failure to use one of these when editing text files will prevent your installation from working

You have telnet or SSH enabled on your router.

You have jffs enabled or do mind redoing this whenever the router reboots

I will assume you are installing to the jffs partition. If you are not, replace jffs with tmp or some other folder

In principle you would simply need to install the Startup Scripts out of the data directory that came within the *.ipks - I don't know how to do this. I guess you would also have to edit them - they are using different paths than we used for the installation of the binaries and configuration files.

(If you are just running the drone on the wrt, you will have to use a short script to manually channel hop. (This may also be needed even if you run the server on the wrt) see channel hopping on kismet drone for more details.)

Your router has SSH configured and you can send files via SSH to and from your desktop

You have a text editor capable of Unix line delimiters. TextPad and win32pad are both acceptable (and free).Failure to use one of these when editing text files will prevent your installation from working

You have telnet enabled on your router.

You have jffs enabled or do mind redoing this whenever the router reboots

I will assume you are installing to the jffs partition. If you are not, replace jffs with tmp or some other folder

Run kismet_client.exe WHILE your server is running on the router. You may have to launch a cygwin command prompt first. Cygwin behaves kinda weird sometimes.

The client is entirely keyboard driven. Press the 'h' key for help. You'll probably want to turn off auto sort right away so you can view extended information about individual networks. Press the 's' key to do this.